<pre>Author/s : Eric Allen Publisher : Apress Category :Project management, Process and Best Practices Review by : Nathan Pruett Rating : 8 horseshoes</pre> This book boils thirteen of the most common bugs down to their root causes and formulates them as 'bug patterns'. Each bug pattern describes how to identify the bug by the symptoms it exhibits, why the bug is occurring, and gives one or more suggestions to fix it and prevent it from occurring again. If the bug you are searching for isn't covered, the author also describes a methodical approach to tracking down bugs efficiently and quickly. Suggestions on how to prevent bugs from occurring in various stages of the development cycle are also presented, which are helpful even if you aren't currently searching for a bug in your code. Most of the suggestions are based on the XP development model, but the practices that are important are pointed out so they can be incorporated into any other style of development. Even though debugging doesn't sound like a fun topic, the author has a very readable style and is able to get you excited about preventing and fixing bugs. The chapters have been very well thought out and the book is broken into topics very well. This is a great book to partner with a 'best coding practices' type of book, like 'Practical Java' or 'Effective Java'. Those books are really good at describing how Java should be coded. This book gives examples of why those practices should be followed, and how to quickly get back on track when they aren't and something goes wrong.